Berkshire Set For Trophy Defence

Berkshire hope that a change of formats will help them to bounce back from a mauling by Staffordshire’s Nils Priestley at Sunday’s National Counties T20 Finals Day. 

Former Derbyshire all-rounder Priestley plundered an unbeaten 147 from 66 balls to set up Staffordshire’s 68 runs win in the first semi-final at Tring Park which ended Berkshire’s hopes of winning the competition for the first time since 2018. 

But Berkshire are holders of the other two National Counties titles – the 50-overs Trophy and three-day Championship – and will start their defence of the Trophy against Hertfordshire at Henley on Monday even more determined to win the competition for a fourth successive season. 

“We have certainly been licking our wounds since Sunday but we have had some good discussions,” said Berkshire head coach Tom Lambert.  

“One thing we are proud of is that when we do lose we do it properly. We make sure that we congratulate the opposition. Staffordshire deserved their day - Cornwall were pretty good too - but it was Staffordshire’s day and they deserved people to stay and watch them and say: well done. 

“Does it make us more motivated? Absolutely. We had four defeats last year and each one made us that bit more determined the next game. 

“We have not become a bad team overnight. We know we can lose games of cricket and we are looking forward to getting back into the flow of things with the 50-over competition this weekend. 

“From our point of view this format and the three-day format are something we have great confidence in. We have won five Championships and six one day trophies recently which tends to suggest that we know what we are doing. 

“We have had all sorts of little formulas to win it and the more comfortable and confident you are in something always helps. 

“It actuallyfelt really comfortable in the T20 and that’s where the disappointment is. We haven’t won it since 2018 and we have got to wait another year to have another go at it. 

“We had the run of four Championship wins from 2016 to 2019 and we have done 219 to 2022 with the Trophy so it’s three back-to-back and let’s hope we can make it four back-to-back like we did with the championship. 

“We are looking forward to defending it. There’s that lovely feeling that it’s our trophy and we don’t want to give it up.” 

Hertfordshire will also be hoping to bounce back from a T20 semi-final defeat on Sunday having been beaten by five wickets by Cornwall at Tring. 

Staffordshire went on to beat Cornwall in the final by four runs to win the T20 competition for the first time and they will begin their Trophy campaign with a Group Four match against Wales NC at Port Talbot as one of three matches on Sunday. 

Priestley, who was released by Derbyshire at the end of last season, also shone in the final with a patient half century and four wickets with his left-arm spin which gave Staffordshire their first silverware since they won the Championship in 2014. 

Staffordshire’s success came under a new coaching and captaincy team of Andy Carr and James Kettleborough and Lambert has now identified them as a side that could threaten Berkshire’s recent domination of National Counties cricket. 

 “We put a lot of effort into the T20 campaign. It’s not something that we have been particularly good at the last few years,” Lambert said. 

“It was disappointing because we felt we had a lot of bases covered. Our failings in T20 cricket in previous years have often been our lack of runs or lack of power. Through the group stages and even getting 190 on Sunday we felt we had the power. 

“The one thing that has never let us down is our bowling but we just got caught a bit cold. The plans were in place and we had spoken quite a bit about Nils but we just didn’t execute and it escalated from there. 

“That can happen in T20 cricket. When we do lose it often takes something special performance-wise from a team or individual. His performance was too good for us on the day and we didn’t find a way to combat it. You also have to doff your hat to him because he played very well.  

“Staffordshire are clearly a very well run and up-and-coming side. They have some really good players, but the day Nils had was also quite remarkable when you look what he did in the final. 

“Fair play to him and fair play Staffordshire they completely outplayed us. That’s one trophy we won’t be getting this year. 

“But it would be harsh to say that Staffordshire won it off the back of one bloke’s performance. They certainly look like a side that are going to have a decent run of it for a number of years if they can keep that team together and keep doing what they are doing.” 

National Counties Trophy 

Sunday May 28 (11am) 

Group Three 

Horsford: Norfolk v Cheshire, Sudbury: Suffolk v Shropshire. 

Group Four 

Port Talbot: Wales NC v Staffordshire. 

Monday May 29 (11am) 

Group One 

Brockhampton: Herefordshire v Cumbria, Scunthorpe: Lincolnshire v Northumberland. 

Group Two 

Henley: Berkshire v Hertfordshire, Truro: Cornwall v Devon 

Group Three 

Mildenhall: Suffolk v Cheshire 

Group Four 

Marlborough College: Wiltshire v Buckinghamshire